This blog is totally independent, unpaid and has only three major objectives.
The first is to inform readers of news and happenings in the e-Health domain, both here in Australia and world-wide.
The second is to provide commentary on e-Health in Australia and to foster improvement where I can.
The third is to encourage discussion of the matters raised in the blog so hopefully readers can get a balanced view of what is really happening and what successes are being achieved.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Budget Night was on Tuesday 13th May, 2014 and it is still not finalised. Not much time left before 2016 Budget is upon us.

Both major health and education changes as well as pension changes are still stuck and we have a new Families Package being floated . Also we have less than 2 sitting weeks in Parliament before the next Budget - due to be handed down Tuesday 12th , May 2015.

JOE HOCKEY has warned the quantum of the savings from the Abbott government’s 2014 budget must be obtained, but signalled the priority in 2015 will be to boost economic growth rather than to make further spending cuts.

The Treasurer said that structural savings were essential to ensure the viability of the tax system moving forward, declaring that failure on this score would make it untenable to remedy bracket creep in the near future.

IF you listen to members of the Abbott government, you’d be forgiven for thinking there are two types of Australians: those who think Australia is going broke and those who think nothing should be done in the interests of sensible improvements to the budget bottom line.

There is, of course, a third type: those of us who believe in sensible measures in the budget grounded in a debate held in a mature and proper context.

Whether in opposition or government, the Liberal Party has embraced inflammatory rhetoric when it comes to debt and deficit.

TRADE Minister Andrew Robb has directly rejected suggestions the government will agree to measures that increase the cost of medicines as part of Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations.

The University of NSW Centre for Health Equity Training Research and Evaluation, based on leaked texts of the deal, claimed the US was seeking to prevent signatories from refusing to grant patents for minor variations to drugs even when there was no evidence of additional benefit.

The effect of the practice, called “evergreening”, allows manufacturers to extend their monopolies on new drugs and frustrates competition.

Political reporter

Prime Minister Tony Abbott "does not love" the government's plan to peg the age pension at a lower rate and if alternative savings can be found and the budget returned to surplus, a higher rate of increase could be reapplied sooner, a Liberal MP said.

The contribution to the debate on pensions by NSW Liberal Angus Taylor, a strong ally of Mr Abbott, comes amid a push by some Coalition backbenchers to force some kind of backdown on the policy.

Earlier in the week, Liberal backbencher Andrew Laming warned there were "large missiles and torpedoes" aimed at the pension plan that will see increases tied to inflation rather than wages growth from July 2017.

This quote from former US president Grover Cleveland might have been Tony Abbott's mantra. But it's gone by the wayside in recent months.

Having argued against taxpayer handouts for the car industry, the government this week announced it wouldn't be going ahead with its proposed cut to a key funding program.

Asked to justify the cut before the September 2013 election, Abbott said: "No adult prime minister in the heat of an election campaign, in panic over polls, charges down the street waving a blank cheque after anyone."

The framers of the health spending narrative face the same quandary. For the last 15 months all we have heard is the “health system is unsustainable” discourse. However, last week’s Intergenerational Report delivered a confusing prediction: Commonwealth health expenditure will decline over the next two decades.

Previous Grattan Institute work has shown health to be the fastest-growing area of government spending. And the reason for the shift in the 2015 Intergenerational Report is not changed assumptions, since the 2015 ones are very similar to those in previous reports. So, how can this be?

Joanna Heath

Private health insurers are being urged to drop cover for homeopathy after a landmark study by the National Health and Medical Research Council found no credible evidence it is effective in treating health problems.

"I would think in the current financial constraints that health insurers private and public should be looking at ineffective versus effective treatments. Things that haven't been shown to be effective I wouldn't want to see funded publicly or privately," chairman of the NHMRC Homeopathy Working Committee, Professor Paul Glasziou said.

TAXPAYERS may continue to subsidise the use of unproven natural therapies by health fund members despite the nation’s leading medical research body finding homeopathy to be a waste of money and in some cases harmful.

As foreshadowed by The ­Australian in January, the ­National Health and Medical ­Research Council yesterday ­declared ­homeopathy to be no ­better than a placebo, warning anyone who used it instead of ­evidence-based treatments would be risking their health.

Homeopathy was the first of 17 natural therapies to be scrutinised by the NHMRC as part of a ­review of the scope of the private health insurance rebate initiated by the former Labor government.

Dan Harrison, Gareth Hutchens

Exclusive

Patients could cop the brunt of a $57 billion hospital funding shortfall that lies behind the miraculous budget turnaround projected by Joe Hockey in the Intergenerational Report.

The yawning funding gap, that threatens to blow out state budgets as well as hospital waiting lists, will be central to the Abbott government's looming white paper on federalism, which NSW Premier Mike Baird insists must be used to resolve the problem.

The Abbott government is booking savings of $57 billion over 10 years as a result of dismantling the hospital funding system put in place by Labor, and from 2017 moving to a new system in which states receive block grants that are adjusted for population growth and inflation as measured by the consumer price index.

Health and Indigenous Affairs Correspondent

Despite declaring its Medicare co-payment "dead, buried and cremated," the Abbott Government is considering proposals to give GPs the option of charging gap fees to bulk-billed patients.

Under the current rules, if a doctor bulk-bills a patient, they must accept the Medicare rebate of $37.05 as full payment for the service. Alternatively, the doctor must forgo the Medicare rebate and charge the patient a higher fee upfront, usually about $70. The patient then claims the $37.05 rebate from Medicare.

Such a change would reduce out-of-pocket costs for patients who already pay upfront to see their doctor, but would mean the end of free care for some patients, and some advocates predict the change would push up fees over time.

Marc Moncrief

The medicare co-payment, or some variation thereof, is reportedly back on the table.

It was only a week ago the issue was closed, with Health Minister Sussan Ley telling Coalition MPs "we are not pursuing it at all".

It's possible no-one in the Coalition party room knew about the chart below, but it's unlikely, and it could lead Liberal MPs to think tinkering with bulk billing is a politically feasible thing to do. It shows the proportion of medical services bulk billed in each electorate.

As the chart makes clear, the electorates with the largest proportion of services bulk billed are overwhelmingly Labor (red), while those with less bulk billing are overwhelmingly Liberal (blue). The yellow bars represent National electorates.

Medical Research Fund.

Robin Fitzsimons

Australia needs to commit more to medical research or pay high prices to others who develop treatments.

The GP co-payment has gone. Its planned introduction was linked to a stunning $20 billion Australian commitment to a Medical Research Future Fund. The world noticed.

The issues are now ostensibly again separate. But when will the $20 billion be achieved? Any delay would prejudice Australians' access to modern treatments. And risk its global research reputation.

The federal government still has not properly explained this most visionary policy of the budget. Put simply, unless we expeditiously invest in medical research Australia will have fewer resources than other developed countries to treat serious illness.

Pharmacy Issues.

The Australian Greens are calling for a public inquiry into the administration of the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement in the wake of criticisms contained in the recent program audit.

A report by the Australian National Audit Office, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, 5 March, raised serious concerns over aspects of the administration and negotiation of the 5CPA.

Now Greens health spokesperson Dr Richard Di Natale (pictured) has added his voice to calls by Professional Pharmacists Australia and the Consumers Health Forum for an inquiry to investigate the reports findings.

Community pharmacy and the PBS remain in the government’s sights for future funding cuts, the health minister says.

Speaking at APP 2015, Health Minster Sussan Ley (pictured) told delegates the government was committed to finding the most cost-effective solutions for the health system, and hinted this could affect future pharmacy funding.

Ms Ley acknowledged the impending 6CPA negotiations, and said that the Department of Health supported the expansion of the pharmacist’s role – however, the industry should prepare itself for some “tough decisions” in the future.

Paul Malone

Three months ago Prime Minister Tony Abbott was in "debt-and-deficit" mode when he addressed the Pharmacy Guild of Australia's annual dinner.

Reminding the guild that the Howard Coalition government had generated surpluses and Labor governments had generated deficits, he said times were now different to those of just a few years ago and "I cannot stand up and say to you that government will no longer be looking for savings".

The audience had no doubts about which program he was referring to and where he wanted savings. Although he didn't name it, he was clearly talking about savings taxpayers' dollars in negotiating the Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement, which needs to be concluded before the old agreement expires in June.

THEY are the taxpayer funded pharmacy millionaires, 941 chemist shops making more than a million dollars a year from a system that’s hurting consumers and taxpayers.

A shocking audit report has revealed how the taxpayer funded $15.4 billion pharmacy agreement that stifles competition is turning one in six pharmacies into million dollar businesses.

The same system is forcing consumers to pay inflated prices for medicines and sees a $1.10 pack of aspirin cost a patient $13.31.

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Comment:

I also have to say reading all the articles I still have no idea what is actually going to happen with the 2015 (or the 2016) Budget (or the Government) at the end of the day. With the Co-Payment gone - but muttering about other ideas growing louder - but the continuing need for Budget savings continuing we have to ask what next?

One wonders for how much longer all this will go on and just what impact a apparently almost inevitable change of leader might have? I think that change is still coming.

It is interesting to see the Pharmacy Guild under pressure from a recent audit of the Community Pharmacy Agreement and where money was spent.